Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Michelle Bachman's Presidential Credentials

Lets take a closer look at MIchelle Bachmann's professional and educational credentials, shall we? Personally, I was wondering how an educated woman with a law degree and experience as a self described " tax litigation attorney" could have such a tenuous grasp on American history that she confuses Concord, New Hampshire with Concord, Massachusetts and tells New Hampshire residents in a speech she is proud to be where " the shot heard round the world" was heard.

Wonder where she thinks the original Bostion Tea Party took place? We know that she has trouble telling movie star, John Wayne, and mass murderer, John Wayne Gacy, apart as well. Oh those pesky historical details just get in the way when you are building your brand, don't they?

So, let's take a closer look at that education she is so proud of. Bachmann received her B.A. degree from small but respectable Winona State University in Wisconsin-- a decent school but not a place where she was apt to encounter anyone with opinions and experiences different from her own.

She got her law degree from Oral Roberts University, which is a horse of a different color. ORU is a Christian University with iffy accreditation founded in 1963 by Televangelist Oral Roberts. Just in case you are not familiar with Oral Roberts University, here is a quote from Wikipedia's history of the place to give you an idea of the academic tone.

"According to the university it was founded by Oral Roberts in 1963 "as a result of the evangelist Oral Roberts’ obeying God’s mandate to build a university on God’s authority and the Holy Spirit.
God’s commission to Oral Roberts was to 'Raise up your students to hear
My voice, to go where My light is dim, where My voice is heard small,
and My healing power is not known, even to the uttermost bounds of the
earth. Their work will exceed yours, and in this I am well pleased'."[12] The first students enrolled in 1965.

The school was accredited in 1971 by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.[13] It is also accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada.[14] Oral Roberts' son Richard Roberts
was named president in 1993. In October 2007 Roberts took a leave of
absence, citing a lawsuit filed by former ORU professors. Tulsa
evangelist Billy Joe Daugherty and Oral Roberts
were named executive regent and interim president of the university
amid a widely publicized scandal and Richard Roberts resigned the
following month.In October 2007 the school was reportedly "struggling financially" with over $50 million in debt.[15]
ORU's operating budget for 2007-2008 was more than $82 million.
However, in the second quarter of 2009, the university's debt was
reduced to $720,000 as of result of a number of simultaneous efforts
including a $70 million gift from the Green family of Oklahoma City and the $25 Million Dollar Matching Campaign, a part of the university's Renewing the Vision effort.[16]
On September 23, 2009, it was announced at the end of the university's
chapel service that all of the university's long-term debt obligations
had been met and the school was debt-free.[17]In January 2009, the university's presidential search committee
recommended Dr. Mark Rutland, President of Southeastern University in
Florida, to succeed Richard Roberts"

No wonder MIchelle Backmann thinks the Founding Fathers were all Evangelical Christians who were against slavery. I'm not surprised she can't tell New Hampshire from Massachusetts or a mass murderer from a movie star. She never studied real history. Her abilities to think critically and search for truth wherever it leads weree stunted by Oral Roberts University where creationism, faith and all that Christian Charisma trump reality every time.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson must be turning in their graves at the thought of La Bachmann being taken seriously as a presidential candidate. Both were children of the 18th Century Enlightenment and called themselves " Deists" rather than Christians-- believing in a higher power, but not in the divinity of Christ. Both men also owned slaves which they bequeathed as property to their descendants.

But never mind. Bachmann's mind is made up. Do not confuse her with the facts. Can the Republican Party REALLY be taking her seriously?

5 comments:

Thomas Jefferson was indeed a "Christian"... if you read Thomas Jefferson's writings you would know this. There are many "Christians" who do not believe in the "Trinity" doctrine and there was a great deal of controversy in Jefferson’s time about it. Especially from his “enemies.” Thomas Jefferson revered Jesus and His teachings. A “Christian” is a follower of Jesus. The so-called "Jefferson Bible" to evangelize the Indians is an example of his admiration for Jesus’ words. If you can't understand this, it is you who are deceived and not the audience.

Actually, you are wrong Larry. One cannot be merely a "follower of Jesus" and call oneself a Christian. Jefferson not only did not believe in the Trinity, he also did not believe in the divinity of Christ. He did believe that Jesus was a great prophet, and gave the world a great moral code. His bible was for his own use, not for the conversion of the Indians. It is not the " so called Jefferson bible" it is his bible. Here's a quote from a letter he wrote in 1803.

"In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves. We must dismiss the Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences and emanations, their logos and demiurges, aeons and daemons, male and female, with a long train of … or, shall I say at once, of nonsense. We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the amphibologisms into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill."

All of this is common knowledge, but maybe you, like Ms. Bachmann, went to Oral Roberts University so perhaps you didn't know

I also did some studying on the Bachmanns and the more you find out the more frightening it gets. Oral Roberts University in helping Clarence Thomas overcome his nomination problems and would explain the constitutional classes that Bachmann has arranged for all the Tea Party freshmen. Additionally, Marcus Bachmann- who fancies himself a doctor- is even more unqualified and calls into question the Minnesota process for counseling center licensing. Anyway, it makes interesting reading.